


Knock Three Times

by Dresupi



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Banter, F/M, Mistaken Identity, Pre-Relationship, SHIELD Agent Darcy Lewis, Undercover, Witness Protection
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-01
Updated: 2019-10-01
Packaged: 2020-11-09 09:23:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,148
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20851136
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dresupi/pseuds/Dresupi
Summary: It’s kind of a good thing that it happens. Fitz wouldn’t know what the signal for danger was otherwise.





	Knock Three Times

**Author's Note:**

  * For [thestanceyg](https://archiveofourown.org/users/thestanceyg/gifts).

> 1970s Song Prompts
> 
> Knock Three Times - Tony Orlando & Dawn - 1970

Fitz had been so long undercover that he wasn’t exactly sure who he was anymore.

Protective custody was one thing, but this had become  _ ridiculous _ .

Never mind that he didn’t even know his protection detail at all. He’d never seen them. Never sensed them watching. Nothing. It was obnoxious. Clearly, he’d been forgotten. There was work he could have been doing, but instead, he was forever trapped in this minimum wage limbo.

The only thing he  _ did _ know was that his protective detail, whoever they were, supposedly lived somewhere in this building. 

But the only person he’d ever come into contact with was the woman who lived directly beneath him. A smile came to his lips when he thought about her.

She was a rather bright patch in this whole ordeal. Annabeth, she’d told him one day at the mailboxes.

Annabeth liked houseplants and listening to golden oldies on her record player. She’d all but invited him over, usually stopping right before an invitation would normally happen. She would blush and skitter off, leaving him to forget that his name was Leo Fitz for just a few minutes longer.

To Annabeth, he was Liam. He had a beard and worked in data entry. And knew exactly zero government secrets that could get him killed.

Liam also planned his week around what was available to binge on Netflix and whether or not he’d had his discount card punched that day at the deli down the street. Kind of a really sad, bachelory existence.

If he didn’t get back to the lab soon, his brain would stagnate. It wouldn’t, he knew that. But it sounded better than just taking it as a given that this was his life now. Surely not forever.

Surely not.

He had today’s sandwich still wrapped on the counter. Meatball Parmesan. It wasn’t his favorite, but he’d eaten at the deli so often, the tastes all ran together anyway.

_ You could teach yourself how to cook or something. _ He thought absently.

_ I’m trying to be depressed and sad, stop giving me solutions,”  _ he argued silently with himself.

He could hear Annabeth’s music drifting up through the window he had open.

Fitz went over to the fridge and ducked inside for a beer. He might have slammed the door a bit too hard to be on purpose, but it usually didn’t matter.

Tonight, it did. It knocked the loaf of bread he had balanced on the top. Which kicked off the world’s saddest Rube Goldberg machine in history. The bread bag landed in his open butter dish, which flipped the knife onto the edge of the countertop, where it wobbled for a few ticks before sliding off the end of the counter and banging twice on the water pipe that ran along the baseboard on the far wall.

Sighing, Fitz placed the beer on the counter and went over to inspect the mess.

Just butter on the pipe. And on the floor where the knife had landed.

He had just opened up the cabinet beneath the sink to reach the cleaner so he wouldn’t have a greasy mess to slip in later when his front door banged open loudly.

Fitz made to turn around but only succeeded in banging his head against the underside of the kitchen sink. “What the actual--” He turned around, flabbergasted to see Annabeth with what looked like a gun doing a search of his apartment.

“Annabeth?” he began.

Rolling her eyes, she tossed him something. “Not Annabeth.  _ Darcy _ . I’m your protective detail, you goober.”

He picked up what she’d tossed him. Credentials. Her SHIELD ID spoke the truth. Agent Darcy Lewis.

“What?” he repeated all the same.

“Damn, take some of you eggheads out of the lab and you go completely batty. Yes. I’m Darcy. We’ve met before, Dr. Fitz.”

“What?” he repeated once more.

Rolling her eyes, she proceeded to kick his dirty clothes hamper, knocking it over. “Where’s the threat? Don’t say  _ what _ again or so help me…”

Closing his mouth, he swallowed and began again. “The threat, you say?”

“You knocked twice on the water pipe. That’s the signal for ‘help me, there’s a threat in my apartment’.”

“Oh, it is, is it?” Fitz crossed his arms across his chest. “Is it? Because no one told me anything, Agent Lewis. I had no instructions other than to begin referring to myself as Liam McNaughton and to take a job in data entry. I’ve been mindlessly obeying  _ that _ day in and day out, and now you’re telling me there’s some kind of bloody code I was meant to know!”

“Alright, alright…” she holstered her gun. “No need to get squeaky.”

“How was I meant to know what no one told me, Agent?”

She laughed a little. “I said, it’s fine… sorry for the mix-up. I thought you knew who I was.”

“No, I…” he paused, narrowing his eyes as he looked at her. “Your name does sound familiar… but I thought--”

“I became an agent,” she said with a dry chuckle. “Glad to know I made such an impact in your life…”

“Your hair’s different. Shorter. Blonder…”

She reached up and pulled. Her hair came away in her hand. Next came the cap covering her real hair. It tumbled down her shoulders in rippling cascades of curls.

“Ah…” he said, the image suddenly clicking. “Darcy Lewis, you used to work with Dr. Foster. I remember now.”

She grinned. “You’re a hair guy, got it. You know Agent Rumlow recognized me from behind?”

His mouth fell open a little. “I hope you don’t think--”

“Dude, you’re fine. Kind of refreshing actually. You’re one of the first ones who didn’t recognize me right away. I’m taking it as a win.”

She collapsed on his couch. “So now that you know who I am, can you start inviting me over more? I’m hella bored.”

Fitz still had the cleaner in his hand so he turned to spray it on the floor and the pipe, sliding the butter knife into the sink. “You could have invited me over…”

“Nah, I don’t do that,” she said with a sniff. “Learned the hard way, and I’ll never do it again.”

“Okay…” he said, trailing off a little. “I have a meatball and parmesan sandwich, if you’d like half.”

She wrinkled her nose. “Is that what that smell is? No thanks.”

“I could…” he stopped for a moment. “I could cook?”

“Another night?” she asked. “That smell is bonkers terrible.”

“Okay, we could go out, then?”

“As Annabeth and Liam?” she asked, reaching for her wig.

“Naturally,” he replied.

“Sounds good, sounds good. I’ll go put my hair on. Be back in a jif.”

He finished cleaning up the mess and pushed his sub into the garbage. She was right. The smell was atrocious.

When she emerged, she had short blonde hair again. “Let’s go, Mr. McNaughten.”

**Author's Note:**

> xoxo!


End file.
